How A Mattress Put a Marauder In Prison
by Marauder Inc
Summary: Sirius has been out of Azkaban for almost a year now and has had his name cleared. Lily and Sirius are together and it is driving somebody mad. While shopping for a mattress, things take a fateful twist. AU SiriusLily


**Title:** How a Mattress Put A Marauder in Prison  
**Chapter: **1 - Killer Silence  
**Author:** Remus Lupin and Sirius Black  
**Rating:** T for language, and themes  
**Ships:** Sirius/Lily, small James/Lily  
**Genre(s):** General  
**Summary:** Sirius has been out of Azkaban for almost a year now and has had his name cleared. Lily and Sirius are together and it is driving somebody mad. While shopping for a mattress, things take a fateful twist. AU Sirius/Lily  
**Disclaimer:** If I owned any of this I wouldn't be putting it up online but on a book shelf.  
**A/N:** I just got done reading Marauder stuff on and I see there is a fanfic about mattress shopping for Sirius. I didn't copy this idea from the person and if you have a feeling of conflict about this, you can email marauder. and can get this cleared up. I seriously almost laughed when I read it because I had just written my first draft of this chapter.

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_Remus' POV_

I guess this all started when Lily went to the flat Sirius had. This was a month ago. Marcia Potter (James' mum and Sirius' surrogate mum) had been by previously to see the place… but that doesn't matter. Not now. Lily went to check out his room and lets just say not even Snivellious could have made that mattress look more revolting. He could have put on a pink string bikini and laid seductively on it and it would have still looked just as repulsive as it did before.

Before I go on, remember this: the whole reason she stopped by Sirius' that day was because THEY WERE TOGETHER. SIRIUS AND LILY HAD BEEN TOGETHER THE BETTER OF SIX MONTHS AND THINGS WERE GETTING "SERIOUS."

Anyway, we went to help him pick up a mattress when Lil informed us that her and her friends had to make some "quick money." To them this meant they had a gig, dancing gig, somewhere and she would be back later. Harry and Phoebe (Sirius' kid, born pre-Azkaban) were at Ron's until tomorrow afternoon so we essentially had all the time in the world without important interruptions (kids) to help Sirius with his "shopping."

He hasn't changed much really, Sirius. He's still the same funny, adventurous guy he was at school. He got his name cleared shortly after he turned up at the Shrieking Shack in Harry's third year, Phoebe's second. With a bit of TLC from Lily, he even LOOKS a lot like he did when we were at school. I'm getting off topic here, though.

We were about to walk into this mattress store when we ran into Elliot Macmillan. He was a year ahead of us in school and in Hufflepuff for that matter, but we had hung out a bit post-Hogwarts. With his son, Ernie, in Harry's year and all, it was easy to relate to him.

So, we ran into Elliot:

"Hi guys." He always said that we he saw us.

"Hi Elliot, how are you doing?" I said maybe a bit too warmly.

"Pretty good, how about you? How's being out of Azkaban been going for you, Sirius?"

Sirius smiled broadly. I knew what he was going to bring up next. "Oh great, Lily and I have been together for about six months and things have just been WONDERFUL over here." He never lost a chance to brag about being with Lily again. They were together during school, on and off really, but always together in the end. She really means a lot to him. I think him being around her again really did him the most good coming back into the world for lack of a better way to put it.

I guess Elliot thought things were differently. "But I thought she was married to you, James."

James sighed. You could see the pain flash across his face, it was almost painful to see. "I wish it were that way, Elliot, but it's not… we never were."

You see, when Sirius was put into Azkaban, he was engaged to Lily and they had a four month old daughter, Phoebe. Lily having to raise two kids on her own, Harry from when her and James were together in sixth year and that terrible ordeal, James and I moved in with her. James got to know Harry better and really be a father to him, I got a nice place to live and Lily had company and not to mention a couple first-rate babysitters when she needed them. James had almost in a way taken possession of Lily I guess. We both did. James finally got confidence in himself and her being over Sirius enough to ask her out. That really didn't go so well. She ended up in tears over how much she missed Sirius and James was crestfallen. After seventh year and Phoebe being born I guess Lily really got her heart set on Sirius and wouldn't let herself think he wasn't coming back. Whenever it got brought up she said he was coming back and he'd get his way out. Oh shit, really off topic now.

Well, we ended our conversation with Elliot quickly after that and continued our search for a mattress. Nothing really seemed too amazing, but I guess looking for a mattress never really was my forte. James still wasn't himself and Sirius just seemed to think it would go away if he ignored it.

"I never knew looking for a mattress could be so depressing." I just had to break the silence. My brain was starting to buzz and it was giving me a headache. Yes, silence can give you a headache because your brain goes "buzz" for a long period of time and… yea. We'll drop that there.

My attempt at lightening the mood didn't work, and then silence continued again. To my rescue, though, was Lily and she looked ready to talk our ears off.

"How are you doing?" She put her arm around Sirius and one around James, only in more of a friendly manner than she intended with Sirius (we all knew they were getting "serious" and Sirius was contemplating popping a question if you catch my drift). She looked over at James and knew instantly something was wrong, her mood changed quickly as she faced him. "What's wrong, James?"

"Nothing. Nothing I'm fine."

Lily signed. "If you say so…" Lily removed her arm from James and turned to look at a mattress to the other side of her.

Sadly, the silence of doom continued. I felt I was about to go insane.. The mattress search seemed to be mission impossible and nobody was talking because Elliot got curious about Sirius. Normally I'm not a big fan of Quidditch, but I was desperate people, so I tried what I knew would work.

"So… what are your guys' views on Bulgaria vs. Ireland at the World Cup this year?"

Lily flashed me a questioning look. I returned it with a shrug.

"Krum will catch the snitch but Ireland will win, their chasers are too good for it not to end that way, though Lynch is nothing to be desired. Krum is amazing, otherwise, Bulgaria's current configuration kind of sucks." Sirius said knowingly.

James only half-smiled. "Yea that's probably the case but I'm for Bulgaria on this one. Like you said, Padfoot, Krum is amazing. Ireland is a good shot, don't get me wrong, but I've always been more for Bulgaria myself."

Sirius gave him a mischievous look. "You're only saying that because of the veela."

James looked at him innocently. "So?"

Due to lack of anything of real humor, this was the funniest thing. We all laughed and James jokingly acted shy and ashamed for this little fact.

"I agree with Sirius but it would have been better if we got another good Arrow-Wasp World Cup." To my surprise, this statement came from Lily. I had completely forgotten for some odd reason, that this was Lily, yes the Lily that was on the Quidditch team and was such a great chaser they had their eye on her for the pros since she started Quidditch. Then she got into that terrible Quidditch accident and wasn't able to play again until our fifth year. Our Hogwarts years, though only 14 years ago… wow, 14 years ago. I guess it HAS been a while. Time just seemed to have halted when Sirius went to Azkaban. I mean, he proposed to her during our final Quidditch Final, that we won by the way, and it all just seemed to surreal. Wow, Phoebe was four months when they threw him into Azkaban. Time does fly.

This also seemed to be a short-lived conversation. Maybe knowing them as well as I do and knowing what was going through each of their minds at the moment. Blame it on too much time with James and Sirius at school, living in the same house as my niece and nephew when they were young, blame it on whatever you wish, but the silence was murderous.

"Why must you all be so quiet? It's so quiet I can't hear myself think properly."

The three exchanged weird looks before nodding.

"Remus, you really are a very special individual, you know that right?" Lily said halfheartedly, looking at a mattress. "Besides, what's there to say?"

Sirius let out a bark-like laugh. "Lily, have nothing to say? Never thought I'd see the day."

James nodded. "We also thought we'd never see the day you went into Azkaban so I guess there's a first for everything."

Damn James, he silenced everybody again. This was horrible! I was trying to hard to get_ anybody_ to talk and then with one snide remark, he shuts them all up. This was really starting to look like a loosing battle.

I sighed. Didn't even realize I did until everybody looked at me. "I give up. This is total insanity."

Lily gave me a worried look. "What is?"

"You're all so quiet because Elliot made a fucking dumb assumption."

Sirius looked applaud. "Moony! Is that language necessary?"

"You use it all the time dipshit."

Sirius smiled. "Just checking, gee Moony-moon."

I couldn't help but smile. Sirius could be such a dumbass, but you had to love him. It sometimes seemed hard to realize we weren't seventeen anymore and that Sirius was even in Azkaban because it was moments like this that seemed to be ages old but yet here we were in the present.

**A/N:** I know this is far-fetched and probably sucks but I had this idea for a long time and I had to get it written down. I know it's a bit on the short side but for some reason this was a little hard to tie up in a descent manner. The next chapters, hopefully, will be a bit better. Look forward to hearing some things from Sirius' POV, maybe next chapter, but for sure sometime in this storyline. Hope you enjoyed crosses fingers and of course **READ AND REVIEW!**


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